Uribe Leading Colombian Race

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) _ Results emerging Monday from congressional elections underscored the influence of a front-running presidential candidate who promises to crack down on leftist guerrillas.

Dozens of candidates endorsed by Alvaro Uribe _ the independent, anti-rebel candidate leading polls ahead of May's presidential election _ were elected to the congress on Sunday. Now, they are expected to help get out the vote for Uribe.

Voting took place amid fears of rebel attacks following the collapse of peace talks and a growing bitterness against the Revolutionary Armed Force of Colombia, or FARC, whose unrelenting violence and attacks on the nation's infrastructure have alienated many Colombians.

The Uribe allies are believed to now hold more than a quarter of the seats in the 102-member Senate and some in the 166-member House of Representatives _ a high total in Colombia where the Liberal and Conservative parties have long dominated politics.

The ruling Conservatives and Liberals both lost seats in Sunday's voting, but remained the largest political forces. The Liberals had a leading 30 percent of the votes cast for each chamber. The final makeup of the legislatures has not been announced.

"Uribe is the most important political phenomenon in years in Colombia. His support was critical for the candidates he backed," said Rafael Pardo, a former defense minister elected Sunday to the senate after aligning himself with Uribe.

The latest poll, conducted late last month, gave Uribe nearly 60 percent support ahead of May's presidential vote, compared to 24 percent for Horacio Serpa of the Liberal Party.

Sunday's vote results could give Uribe _ the former governor of Antioquia State _ a power base and answer critics' claims that he wouldn't have enough support to govern if elected, Pardo said.

Further reflecting anger at the rebels, a right-wing paramilitary group waging a brutal counterinsurgency against suspected rebel sympathizers on Monday said it had made major gains in the vote.

In a message posted on the Internet, a top commander of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, Salvatore Mancuso, claimed his group had "greatly surpassed" its goal of placing sympathetic candidates in 35 percent of the congress.

It was not possible to verify Mancuso's claim, which would give the outlawed militia group an unprecedented foothold in congress. Candidates who received the group's support would have done so secretly. The group, known as the AUC, is on a U.S. State Department list of terrorist organizations.

The government called the election, which had a high voter turnout, a triumph of democracy over "terrorism" practiced by the guerrillas and the AUC. The rebels had urged Colombians not to vote, and have been waging a bombing campaign against the civilian infrastructure.

Rebels burned ballots in 15 towns, but fears of widespread sabotage by the FARC did not materialize.

The Conservative Party's president, Carlos Holguin, resigned on Monday, taking the fallout for his party's 10 percent drop in number of seats in congress.

The party's popularity has plummeted because of economic decline and the unpopular peace policies of President Andres Pastrana. Pastrana formally ended the peace talks last month after three years of frustration.

The top vote-getter in the lower house of congress was hard-liner Jaime Canal, a retired general who stepped down two years ago, saying government restrictions had hamstrung the military in the war on the rebels.

The elections, however, were not a simple right-wing sweep. The presence in the senate of former guerrilla leader Antonio Navarro Wolf, and left-leaning former Constitutional Court president Carlos Gaviria could provide a counterbalance to hawks calling for an all-out war on the guerrillas.

A surprise winner was Maria Isabel Urrutia, a female weightlifting champion who earned Colombia's only Olympic gold medal ever, at the 2000 games in Sydney.